Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal was at a loss of words following their loss to Arsenal and questioned his teama s motivation in the post match press conference.
Premier League leaders Manchester United, failed to recover from Arsenal blitzkrieg opening spell, as they conceded three goals within 20 minutes. Even the Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal was forced to admit that he was amazed at failure of the United players to carry out the tactic.
The Guardian quoted Van Gaal saying a I didna t expect that. I was surprised a not performing to our gameplan, not the will to win. I have not seen that, when you are top of the league [as United were at the beginning of the weekend]. So I was surprised, amazed a maybe that is a better word.a
Van Gaal was quite critical of his teama s timid display during the opening quarter of the game, as he lamented about his team leaving too much space, despite the pre match instructing to play more compact.
a When you give a team like Arsenal so much space to play football, then you know you will lose. We prepared ourselves to play more compact and not losing our aggression, so it was amazing for me. I am very disappointed.a
The Red Devils manager pointed out the influence of two Arsenal stars Santi Cazorla and Mesut zil, who had enough time and space, to take away the game from Uniteda s reach.
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a The problems did not start at the back, they started in midfield. Their midfield players, especially Cazorla and zil, had too much time and space. We also had space behind our defence. When you always put the pressure on, they cannot make their passes so easily. That was our problem in the first half.a
a They were not aggressive. And you have to do it not only with the two in midfield but as a team. You have to be more compact. You need aggression at the moment you have a duel and Arsenal were much more aggressive.a
